H Rider Haggard

Henry Rider Haggard (Bradenham, Norfolk, June 22, 1856 - London, May 14, 1925) was a Victorian English writer of adventure novels, initiator of the "lost world" subgenre. ».

Biography

She was born in the country manor Wood Farm, in Bradenham Hall, Norfolk, England. He was the eighth of ten children born to sir William Meybohm Rider Haggard, a landowner with a knack for business, and Ella Doveton, a lover of literature and occasional poet.

He learned to read in the family home from his older sister and from the age of ten he was tutored in London by the Reverend H. J. Graham who initiated him into the study of the classics. He entered an institute in Ipswich where he stood out for his ability to write Latin verse in the manner of Virgil and Horace. At sixteen he sat unsuccessfully for the Foreign Office.

Recommended by his father, he joined the team of civil servants in 1875 as secretary to sir Henry Bulwer, recently appointed governor of Natal, a British colony in present-day South Africa. In the exercise of his profession He traveled around the area dealing with various tribes, especially Zulus, for work reasons but also for pleasure, which allowed him to see for himself the future settings of his novels. The war dance ceremony he witnessed in Bulwer's honor inspired the article A Zulu War Dance published in the Gentleman's Magazine in July 1877. During this first stay in Africa he became engaged to Mary Elizabeth "Lilly" Jackson, but could not marry her because she did not get parental permission. During his four years in southern Africa, Rider Haggard combined his professional duties as assistant governor with his studies of the settlers and natives of the region. At the age of twenty-one, he was appointed clerk of the High Court of Pretoria, but his criticisms The administration was soon removed from it and led to undertake various and failed businesses.

In 1879 he returned to England and a year later he married Louise Margitson, a friend of his sister, with whom he traveled to Africa that same year. Haggard wanted to go into business in the colony but the instability in the area due to the The first Anglo-Boer War forced them to return to England in August 1881, where he studied law and began to practice law, combining it with the publication of articles inspired by his stays in Africa.

In 1882 his first book, Cetywayo and his white neighbours, was published, reflecting his observations of indigenous African peoples, but was not very successful. Two years later, he published a book of short stories, Dawn, which was followed by The witch's head (1885) and The Mines of King Solomon (1885), written shortly more than a month in London, which consecrated him definitively —published in September, it had been rejected by numerous publishers before appearing with enormous success. In this work, his character Allan Quatermain appears for the first time, who had some characteristics of the own author.

In 1887 the novels Allan Quatermain, Jess —both written in 1885 and first published in installments— and Ella —written with the characteristic speed of the author at the beginning of 1886—, which, with eighty-three million copies sold, is one of the most popular books of all time. The sequel to this work, published in 1905, was also highly good reception among the public.

In 1888, wealthy and considered one of the most famous writers of his day, he wrote Cleopatra after a trip to Egypt, Maiwa's Revenge and Mr. Meeson's Will and began Beatrice and The World's Desire. Successive deaths in the family temporarily plunged him into a deep crisis that led him to isolating himself in his wife's mansion, while continuing to write at a remarkable pace. The need to maintain the family income and the birth of his daughter Lilias in 1892 allowed him to get over it and resume his intense literary and social activity.

A tireless writer, he reflected on the problems of contemporary agriculture in A Farmer's Year (1899) and in his two-volume work Rural England (1902), the result of two years of research. Sent by the English Government, he traveled to the United States to report on the agricultural and industrial establishments set up there by the Salvation Army. Later he was part of the Royal Commission for Reforestation and Erosion Coastal. Another official appointment, as a member of the royal commission to the colonies, allowed him to travel in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada until the beginning of World War I, at which time he returned to Britain.

He was knighted (Knight Bachelor) in 1912 and Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire () in 1919. A few years earlier (1895) had tried to access Parliament for the Conservative Party but failed by 198 votes.

He had a son, Jock, whose death at the age of ten caused his only creative crisis, and three daughters, Angela, Dorothy and Lilias. To the latter we owe the biography of his father, The cloak that I left , published in 1951. The writer died in London on May 14, 1925 after an operation.

Works

His most famous novels are those with his two best-known characters as protagonists:

• Allan Quatermain, considered to be the embodiment of the "white hunter" The mines of King Solomon (1885), The Adventures of Allan Quatermain (1887), Maiwa's revenge (1887), Allan's wife (1889), Allan in Egypt (1920) and Allan and the ice gods (1927).
• Ayesha or Ella, an immortal woman who lives for centuries in Africa being worshipped as a goddess by the natives, until the European explorers find her. About her. She (1887), Ayesha: the return of Her (1905) e Daughter of wisdom (1923), where its origin is reported in ancient Egypt.

The novel Allan and Ella (1921) brings together both characters.

Other novels he wrote were Cleopatra (1889), Eric Bright-Eyed (1891), and Red Vespers (1911).

Although H. Rider Haggard is not as popular today as it was in his day, one of his works had a major impact on 20th-century thought: She, quoted by both Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung as a prototype of the feminine.

His works include:

Modern Editions

• Haggard, H. Rider (2010). The mines of King Solomon. Madrid: Anaya. ISBN 978-84-667-1560-7.
• - (2009). The mines of King Solomon. Madrid: S.A. de Promoción y Ediciones. ISBN 978-84-407-1765-8.
• - (2007). The mines of King Solomon. Madrid: Jorge A. Mestas. School Editions. ISBN 978-84-95311-27-6.
• - (2004). The mines of King Solomon. Barcelona: Editorial Alliance, S.A. ISBN 978-84-206-3936-9.
• - (2001). The mines of King Solomon. Barcelona: Edicommunication, S.A. ISBN 978-84-8461-015-1.
• - (1998). She. Madrid: Valdemar. ISBN 978-84-7702-214-5.
• - (1997). She. Barcelona: Edicommunication, S.A. ISBN 978-84-7672-752-2.
• - (1988). She. Madrid: Editions Generales Anaya, S.A. ISBN 978-84-7525-129-5.
• - (2001). Allan Quatermain. Barcelona: Abraxas, S.L. ISBN 978-84-95536-27-3.
• - (1998). The Adventures of Allan Quatermain. Madrid: Reading Circle, S.A. ISBN 978-84-226-7269-2.
• - (1992). Allan Quatermain. Madrid: Grupo Anaya, S.A. ISBN 978-84-207-4484-0.
• - (2001). Maiwa's revenge. Madrid: Abraxas, S.L. ISBN 978-84-95536-48-8.
• - (2006). Cleopatra. Barcelona: Abraxas, S.L. ISBN 978-84-96196-30-8.
• - (1998). Cleopatra. Barcelona: Planeta-De Agostini. ISBN 978-84-395-6938-1.
• - (2002). Allan's wife. Barcelona: Abraxas, S.L. ISBN 978-84-96196-30-8.
• - (2009). The Desire of the World. Madrid: Labyrinth Library. ISBN 978-84-92492-28-2.
• - (1991). Eric Eyes Shining. Madrid: Miraguano Editions. ISBN 978-84-7583-810-6.
• - (1989). The people of the witch. Madrid: Miraguano Editions. ISBN 978-84-7813-036-8.
• - (1994). The Curse of Chaka (Nothing the Lirio). Madrid: Valdemar. ISBN 978-84-7702-117-9.
• - (1998). Ayesha, the return of Her. Madrid: Valdemar. ISBN 978-84-7702-237-4.
• - (1997). Ayesha, the return of Her. Barcelona: Edicommunication, S.A. ISBN 978-84-7672-755-3.
• - (1987). Ayesha, the return of Her. Barcelona: Laertes. ISBN 978-84-85346-83-7.
• - (1989). Ghost kings. Madrid: Transversal. ISBN 978-84-96554-89-4.
• - (1997). The daughter of Ammon. Barcelona: Editions Obelisco, S.L. ISBN 978-84-7720-560-9.
• - (2007). The sacred flower. Barcelona: Abraxas, S.L. ISBN 978-84-96196-70-4.
• - (2007). The brotherhood. Barcelona: Editions B, S.A. ISBN 978-84-666-1576-1.
• - (2006). The brotherhood. Barcelona: Zeta Bolsillo. ISBN 978-84-96581-74-6.
• - (1988). When the world shook. Barcelona: Editions Obelisco, S.L. ISBN 978-84-7720-081-9.
• - (1997). She and Allan. Barcelona: Edicommunication, S.A. ISBN 978-84-7672-759-1.
• - (1987). She and Allan. Barcelona: Editions Obelisco, S.L. ISBN 978-84-7720-033-8.
• - (2001). Daughter of wisdom. Barcelona: Edicommunication, S.A. ISBN 978-84-8461-018-2.
• - (1987). Allan and the ice gods. Barcelona: Editions Obelisco, S.L. ISBN 978-84-7720-045-1.